A Confession of Regret
by PadmeSkywalker540
Summary: Elizabeth can't help but notice Jack fooling around with a ring, which leads him to reveal a very personal story and bring up feelings that he has denied for years.  OneShot During end of AWE, pre OST  J/E friendship; mentions W/E and J/A


**Disclaimer: Disney is the sole owner of POTC.**

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><p>It was early in the night and Elizabeth Swann-Turner sat beside the makeshift fire she had made on the beach. She felt her hand across the top of the chest that contained Will's heart and closed her eyes to hear it beat. She shivered and ached all over her whole body. It was only hours ago that she had the heat of Will's body all over her own. His hands on her head, her breasts, her hips; his breath exhaling on her neck, and her stomach. His eyes, staring into her, making her feel as if they were the only two people on this Earth, let alone on this island.<p>

He was now gone. Gone for ten years to ferry souls to the next life. She ached for him and she ached to see his face, his eyes, feel his hair in her fingers. But she was grateful to at least have his heart, the one thing he said always belonged to her.

Then she heard a small crash. She opened her eyes and turned her head around. The small longboat was halfway buried into the sand and there was a body that lay next to it. Elizabeth ran rapidly to the wreck and to her astonishment, found none other than Captain Jack Sparrow, unconscious and next to a bottle of rum.

"Jack," she muttered to herself, "will you ever learn?" She slowly dragged him over by the fire. Then she laid him on his back.

"Jack!" she whispered. No answer.

"Ja-ack!" she shouted. Still no answer. Frustrated, she slapped him furiously hard on the cheek.

"Dammit Jack! Wake up!"

"Ah!" Jack awoke immediately and recognized the pain he felt throughout his face and slowly sat up while rubbing his left cheek. "What the bloody hell-" and then he noticed the tall, slender figure in front of him, looking down in slight disgust with a small smile.

"Lizzie?" He felt another pain in his cheeks and rubbed it a little harder, "I guess I deserved that."

Elizabeth's smile grew bigger and she sarcastically said, "You don't say?"

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><p>Thirty minutes later, Jack was silently sitting beside Elizabeth at the fire. Elizabeth looked down at Jack's hands curiously. He kept nervously fondling with a ring on his left hand. Elizabeth knew that Jack had numerous trinkets that he occasionally played with but it almost looked as if he was obsessed with this ring. She began to suspect that Jack must have had some sort of a story about this ring and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. The light of the fire shone brightly on the stone and reflected into Elizabeth's eye and she immediately moved away.<p>

"What is it with you and that ring Jack?" she muttered. Jack stopped and sat straight up. He then moved his back towards Elizabeth.

"Nothing, it's just pretty," he said, his hands still messing with the ring.

"Well if it's 'just pretty' then why are you fiddling with it while also looking like someone is about to kill you?" she asked.

"Well, i-er…," he stammered, "Stop asking these intrusive questions! It's none of your business as to why I'm fiddling with this ring. So there."

"Jack," Elizabeth stated firmly, "I'm not stupid. I can tell when you play with that thing that you're in deep thought about something…or maybe, perhaps…some_one_…perhaps, someone of the opposite sex?"

Jack's clasped hands began to shake as she spoke those words and tried to comeback at her with something witty, but he could only stammer.

"Arrrgh! You-why-just…GAAAH!" Elizabeth gave a devious giggle.

"I figured it had something to do with someone of the opposite sex!"

"ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! FINE!" Jack shouted stubbornly similar to a small child. He turned to Elizabeth's face. "If you are so curious about some of my most deepest personal and emotional thoughts surrounding said ring, I shall tell you the story behind said ring that has something to do with someone of the opposite sex."

Elizabeth adjusted herself, sat her head on her knees, and gently rubbed the front of her legs, eager to drink up the juice that was going to come out of Jack's words, but still aware in the back of her mind that it could cause him pain to talk about.

"First thing's first," Elizabeth stated, "What was her name?"

"Ah-" Jack felt a lump in his throat and put his head down, "Annnnn-"

"Spit it out!" She slapped him in the back and he muttered the name quietly through slightly clenched teeth.

"Angelica."

"What was that?"

"Angelica," he said a little louder with his teeth clenched tighter. Elizabeth gave an eye roll and let out a short sigh.

"Seriously Jack!" she shouted, "Do I have to slap you again?"

"ANGELICA!" Elizabeth jumped back at Jack's volume and quickness of his shouting. He was breathing heavily. "It's Angelica alright?"

"All right, yes Angelica," she stated. She began to feel the pit of regret of being a little too nosy. "I'm sorry for pushing this on you, I just want to know. Go on."

"Very well," Jack settled. "Just a couple of years before I met Barbossa and Bootstrap. I landed in Spain, Seville technically, looking for a hideaway from the royal hiney's guards. It was my impersonation of the clergyman that they were after me for." Elizabeth nodded.

"So, I be more than tipsy than usual per say one night and I feast my eyes upon this old-looking structure where I see some of these lovely ladies so I stumble on over there and I fall at the door steps and then I look up and there she is, getting down on her knees and caressing my face. Thick, healthy dark brown hair in lush waves. Big brown eyes that had the glint of diamonds in them. We just stared at each other for about two minutes, and it was if the world stood still. Then, one of the fat old ladies had to break it up, whom I didn't realize at the time was a nun."

"A nun?" Elizabeth said astoundingly. "Jack what were you doing in a Spanish Convent?"

"Mistook it for a brothel. Honest mistake."

Elizabeth shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Dear Lord," she stated with an exasperated sigh.

"Anyhow, so she hid me with her for about three months and so I begin to teach her all of the tricks-of-the-trade of piracy and deception and in the middle of this I guess you could say I…deflowered her, so to speak."

"Even with recent events, I would have never guessed you were _that_ naughty in the past."

"Ah! Well you learn something new everyday now don't you."

"Yes, yes, yes. So when does the ring come in?"

"Right now actually. Gave it to her as a gift after we made love one night. Our time together was all fun and games until she mentioned for me to runaway with her."

"And?"

Jack paused, "Well, I guess I became fearful of it. I was a man of the sea, and the sea was my first love. It would have been foolish for me to throw it away for a woman at the time. Didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that I needed to go. So one day after we slept together, I left and never looked back."

Elizabeth half-frowned, half showed concern on her face. "So as someone would say, you pretended to love her, then you left her and broke her heart?"

Jack slowly nodded. "Worse. I may have had, briefly mind you…stirrings." Elizabeth's face looked confused.

"Stirrings?"

"Stirrings."

Elizabeth thought for a moment and quickly came to an epiphany, "You mean like feelings?" she stated.

"No! No! No! Not quite all the way to feelings. More like-" Elizabeth was shaking her head again slightly disgusted.

"Jack," she said firmly giving him a snide look, "Be serious."

Jack quickly turned away after two seconds. "All right, feelings! Damn you!"

Elizabeth's mouth turned to a pout, "And you left her still. Ooh that's low!"

Jack's face spelled defeat and guilt. "Thank you."

"So, did you just take the ring with you then?"

"No, she still had it. But then I found it over at Tia Dalma's shack. I guess she had given it to her in exchange for knowledge of the ritual."

"Ritual?"

"For the Fountain of Youth."

Elizabeth gave out another exasperated sigh. "Oh Dear God Jack! That fairytale?"

"Don't start with me Lizzie! So I just took the ring back. It was almost hard to hide my thoughts at the time from everybody." He looked back down at his hands again and began to twiddle with the ring. "I repressed those thoughts for the rest of the journey, that was until you killed me."

"How?"

"I dunno. I guess it was just one of those moments where I had my life flash before my eyes. Happened before but not like this. As I blacked out in the beast, the last word that I breathed before I was in the locker was her name and I couldn't understand why. And I guess I still had that twinge of regret throughout my entire time in that dreaded place, because I never got the chance to properly tell her that I was sorry. And then when I came back to this world, I repressed those thoughts again. Then today, all throughout the battle, Angelica kept appearing in my mind and I was afraid of it. Not afraid of her, but afraid that I was never going to see her again." Elizabeth was now completely touched by those words and felt tears coming to her eyes.

"You love her." Jack's eyes opened wide.

"What did you say?"

"You heard me," Elizabeth said, "You love her."

"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa now now now, I didn't necessarily say that I _love_ her so to speak, I said I had fee-"

"Jack!" She angrily slapped him hard on his right cheek.

"What the bloody hell was that for?"

"Because you're an idiot! You tell me all of this and now you're trying to completely deny the fact that you may-no you DO have more than feelings for this woman? You're a rotten scoundrel you are to deny the desire and longing you have for this woman! I cared for Will so much from the first moment on that I hid the medallion for fear that they would hang him! Of course I became briefly engaged to James, but my heart still couldn't deny Will. When Will was stabbed, I ended up getting those same sensations that you talked of when you explained of your thoughts of Angelica. I feared that I would never see Will again! Never tell him I was sorry for anything I had done wrong! Never get to tell him again how much I loved him! Everything that you just told me about Angelica is not too different from what I felt about Will for nearly two years now! And what I still feel right now, stronger than ever!"

She was painting heavily and tears streamed down her face. Jack looked away in shame. He had never seen her this angry before, or this distraught. He did feel a little angry with her for trying to make presumptions about how he felt towards Angelica, but then again, she was right. Why else would he think of her so much during those times if supposedly she wasn't supposed to really mean anything after their brief time together. At that point, he realized that Angelica did mean more to him than what he had thought before. He did _love_ her, and was too scared to admit it to himself after all of those years. Elizabeth sat down by his side again.

"You're lucky Jack," she said slightly chocking on her words. "I have to wait ten more years to see Will again, when he is done with his duties. You have the chance to find Angelica and tell her the truth about your feelings. You could find her tomorrow, in a week, or in a month, or maybe a year. "She removed the tears from her eyes. "Jack, I'm telling you this as a friend. You mustn't regret having feelings of love. I nearly did that to Will once, and I almost lost him for good. I don't want you to go through the same pain that I did." Jack slowly nodded in agreement.

"You were right Lizzie, about Angelica," he stated firmly but quietly, "I had loved her, and I still do. I guess I was just terrified about the prospects of being the other half of someone, not necessarily realizing that I had my other half missing to begin with."

The two pirates embraced each other wearily for the conversation had left them exhausted. After they let go Elizabeth asked, "What will you do now?"

"Lots of things," Jack said quietly. "Firstly, seek the Fountain of Youth, secondly find another ship and crew, and if I happen to find Angelica-"

"You _will_ find Angelica."

Jack nodded. "I will. And I'll know what to do after then." He walked back to the boat and fixed himself on his way out to the water. He was on stranger tides now, and he was going to enjoy it. "Now, bring me that horizon."

Elizabeth couldn't help but still be amazed by Jack's resilience and spirit. She smiled and said to herself out towards Jack, "Drink up me hearties yo ho!"

**REVIEWS GREATLY APPRECIATED! :D**


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